Working through the Bardic course

[John KilmartinParticipant]

Hello, All.

I’m working through the Bardic course.

If I’m honest its slow going, partly due to my Dyslexia and competing work commitments.
But also because I’m slightly ADHD and keep going off on tangents.
E.g. when reading Culhwh and Olwen, I noticed that the Welsh word for spear was Gwayw, which is phonetically similar to the Saxon / middle English word Gar, which is in turn derived from the Germanic word Gaizaz, and interestingly the Norse word for spear is Gairr,
So then I decided to look into whether the Welsh word and the Germanic word share a common root, which they probably do though this word is likely lost to history.
Then I wondered if this is the case why we use the word “spear” and not something similar to Gar et al? It turns out the Gar et al means pointed stick or javelin but Spear comes from the Germanic word “Spera” which broaly means shaft / pole and is probably where we get the word Spar from (i.e. spars on a wheel). So then I went down the rabbit hole of whether the two terms were historically quite technical and held specific meanings / symbolism that is sadly lost to time. All of this is quite fascinating but what I’ve not been doing is reading Culhwh and Olwen.

The interesting thing here is that when reading these translated verses some of the symbolism and poetry e.g. alliteration and rhyme is lost.
If I want to enjoy and understand these stories would anyone say is it worth learning Welsh, or I am yet again going down another Rabbit hole here and getting distracted (again).

I’d love to hear peoples thoughts.

[DowrgiParticipant]

Hello John,

Fascinating post. I’m also rather adept at going off on tangents and down rabbit holes! You learn a lot. I suspect you’re right that the two words probably had more specific meanings in the past; one became generalised and replaced the other entirely. It’s interesting how words change, too. In Old English, ‘deer’ was a generic word for ‘animal’, ‘meat’ was a generic word for ‘food’, ‘man’ actually meant human, not specifically a male, and a ‘fish’ was just a creature that lived in water… and so on.

As for the translations, I’d agree. It is really worth making the effort to look up the original and check the etymologies and meanings – ‘lost in translation’ is always going to be a factor, but all the more so when dealing with poetry. Given that the bulk of the material is in Welsh, I’d recommend the Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru (GPC) online. It has a Welsh and English option and gives useful cognates, derivations, and – importantly – historical attestations. It really is an invaluable source.

Bennathow,
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